Pregnancy with implants, 24 week update

It’s time again for another pregnancy update!! It’s been 24 weeks so far, which seems so crazy to me. I know I just did a post 5 weeks ago, but boy have things changed since then. (Mom, if you are reading this, it may get to be TMI for you. Just a warning, same for any guys reading. If you aren’t comfortable hearing about nipples, then stop reading!)

The biggest change has been in the boobs, of course. My first and only professional bra fitting was done at about 13 weeks at The Fitting Touch. You can read about that here. At that fitting I was given a Panache Andorra in 28HH. At this point I’m just going with what I can wear comfortably. Because of the projection of the implants that I have I end up with a much higher cupsize then what I need for width, so no matter what I do the wires are way too wide. (More on wire widths and fitting implants in a later post.) The extra wide wires do not cause any comfort issues, so I really have no other option then to just go with it.

From the 13 week on things have just gotten bigger and bigger. Most of the changes were in the density of my own very limited natural tissue. There were no measurement differences until very recently. Around the 20 week mark I noticed that my once comfortable Andorra was causing more painful digging in the wire under each breast. Time to up size the cup. After taking measurements I discovered that there was finally a measurable size increase. My fullest bust measurement had gone up 1 inch, with each breast (measured from cleavage to outside) also having gone up 1 inch. So based on these new measurements, I scoured Bratabase for measurements and contacted another blogger, June from Braless in Brasil, with similar measurements. I decided to go with the conservative money method and purchase from Bra Stop, you don’t want to waste a bunch of money on bras during pregnancy. I ordered a 28J that runs a bit large in the cup and two 28JJ.

Unfortunately for me, they took forever to get here. Bra Stop is located in the UK so everything that ships to the US has to go through customs. A normal eBay.uk order can take a week, two weeks max. Once it got to the two week mark I started to get frustrated. Then it came to the three week mark. I contacted Bra Stop and was told I had to wait until 21 working days (so just over 4 weeks) before they could do anything. Low and behold, my order arrived the next day! In that three week time frame my bust measurement grew another 1/2 an inch. It’s like they are going crazy out of nowhere! Unfortunately my Bra Stop order needs some alterations due to strap placement (stay tuned for that post) so I can’t wear them yet.

I did have a wonderful fairy bramother reach out to me with a very generous offer, one of which was a Panache Andorra in a 28J. So now I can show you some comparisons between 13 weeks and 24 weeks, in the same style bra.

Panache Andorra in 28HH, 13 weeks pregnant

Sorry for the blurry image! At the 13 week mark my ribcage was still measuring 26 inches and the 28 band was supportive enough. You can see a touch of lifting in the lace below the center gore, but the wire tacks around my breast and sits flat on my sternum.

Panache Andorra 28J, 24 weeks pregnant

Not quite the same angle, but you get the general idea. My ribcage is measuring 27 inches here. Again you can see the slight lifting of the lace under the gore. This time the wire tacks under my entire breast, but while standing the gore sits just a tiny bit off my sternum. It still works because that super stretchy upper lace section.

28HH Andorra, side shot, 13 weeks pregnant

Here is the side view of the 28HH. Here you can see the incredibly wide wire that was previously mentioned.

28J Andorra, side shot, 24 weeks pregnant

And the 28J from the side. Again you can see how far back the wire goes. Not ideal, but it doesn’t bother me or feel uncomfortable. It doesn’t dig under the arm or ride high into my armpit. Compared to the discomfort I had before, this is a slice of heaven! You can see that the 28J is good for the projection that I have. Also something you can not see here is that the sides of my breasts are filling out more. It isn’t enough to fill the wires of the bra, but it is noticeable. I really wonder what shape a person has to have to really fill out wires this wide in a bra. It just doesn’t seem like a person that would wear a 28 band could have breasts that far back! In clothing you can see much more sideboob. My shadow from straight on doesn’t look pregnant at all, it actually looks like an hourglass. From the side I look pregnant though. If I am standing facing away with out a top on you can see a lot more sideboob then what I used to have.

On to the funny part. I have decided that not only do they look a ton larger, but they feel heavier. So today I got it in my head that I need to know how much they weigh so I can share it. Before my augmentation I had basically no breast tissue of my own. If I had wanted to pursue it I could have tried to get insurance to pay for an augmentation due to lack of breast development. So the prepregnancy weight of my breast was all implants. I calculated the weight of my implants to be 3.3lbs using the formula found here. Next I weighed myself, with my wonderful husband helping by holding up the weight of my breasts. He just stood behind me and lifted them up. Then I weighed myself with out support. The difference was 5.8lbs. Subtracting the weight of my implants from that, my total breast weight increase has been about 2.5lbs. Of course this is just approximate and if anything the weight additional weight of my pregnant breasts would be higher. Considering that I am 24 weeks pregnant and have gained 8lbs (from my lowest known 1st trimester weight, body stat reminder: I’m 5’1.5″ and usually 110lbs) a 2.5lb increase in the breasts is pretty significant to me.

Now that you have that interesting visual in your head, it is time to talk nipples and aureola. (Mom and guys that may still be reading, now is the time you may want to stop. It’s about to get a little TMI.) Now it is completely normal to have nipple and aureola changes through pregnancy, usually the increase in size of both and the change of color. It is important to distinguish here that the entire thing isn’t just your nipple, the outside area is the aureola. I won’t go crazy explaining the difference between the two, so google if you really don’t know. The changing of the size nipple and aureola is a gradual process, but color changes can be almost immediate. I have not really had any noticeable nipple changes, but I have had aureola changes. Considering I see myself daily, it was hard to notice. Now, it is normal to have a bit of increase with an augmentation, usually the aureola will stretch. So before pregnancy my dime sized grew to quarter sized through augmentation. I’m sure my nips have probably gotten bigger, but I just haven’t noticed. But what I did notice was randomly getting out of the shower and realizing that my aureola had changed in size and color. The size change happened slowly, what caught my attention (finally) was the color change. Babies have horrible eye sight, so that color change is essential to help them find their food source. All of these changes may go back to how they were before pregnancy, or they may not. It’s hard to tell which woman will get what hand out of the pregnancy deck of cards.

The next boarder line TMI. Leaking. Yep, that’s right, a pregnant lady can have leaking boobs. When it starts really depends on the woman. It can happen early, late in the second trimester, or after birth. I’ve got nothing so far. Not a drip or drop. Some times you don’t even notice, it just kind of dries on the skin. Nothing here but normal flaky dry skin. I’m kind of wishing they would do something, just to put my milk production fears at ease. Just because I have implants doesn’t mean I won’t be able to breast feed, I’m just as likely to be able to as any other woman. But just like any other woman, there are reasons I may have difficulties. So we just wait and see on that. But it still may be a good idea to buy some nursing pads, it could happen at any time with no warning.
So that’s all I’ve got that is boob related. Other general body changes include a growing belly (of course), hips that are a bit wider, and crazy fingernail growth. I am wishing my hair would grow faster, but I didn’t get that lucky. I’m still able to sleep on my back, I can even still lay on my stomach with no pillows. That’s probably because my fullest bust measurement is still larger than my belly measurement. I’ve got the normal back pain off and on and horrible pelvic girdle pain (the lower part of your spine just above your tail bone). That is what is killing me the most. That and crazy food aversions.

And finally a belly picture!

24 weeks pregnant

Again, not the best on the bra. The band rides down because it is a bit big, so the wire is sitting a lower than it should on my chest. But because of the projection I have a smaller cupsize won’t work. This is actually incredibly comfortable even if my breasts don’t work 100% in the cups. It’s an odd mix of the bottom of the cups being a bit empty, a wire that is too wide, a gore that is lifting, and nipples that are about two seconds from falling out. But as long as it is comfortable, I’m perfectly fine with wearing it. When you have overly sensitive pregnancy boobs, you’d be surprised at how far you’d go to keep them comfortable. I’m pretty sure I’d walk on broken glass if it meant I’d have comfortable boobs.

That is exactly what it is! I’ve checked into what is recommended, some I’m out of the size range for (Masquerade), others I can’t get right now. Once I have a post pregnancy bra sized established I’ll be looking into more of what Bravissimo offers. I’m kind of burnt on ordering from overseas right now. I do have two Ewa Michalak bras on order through The Big Bra Bar, but they will be a while coming. I have high hopes for the PL, CH, and CHP styles.

I have seen someone that used a bowl and displaced water to measure the cc/ml size of their breasts and attempted to turn that into an estimated weight. But I have no idea how accurate that would be considering breast tissue density varies.

I’d love to have her bras, especially during pregnancy. Unfortunately the order process is much too long and 28 bands are not returnable. The length of the order process is the largest deterrent, but like I’ve found out, when your breasts are changing due to pregnancy you need to be able to access bras quickly.
I do have two on order to hopefully establish fit. From there I’ll be able to order post pregnancy back in my usual 26 band.